UPPER HOUSE NEW APPOINTMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22353, 26 February 1936, Page 16

UPPER HOUSE

NEW APPOINTMENTS

EARLY CHOICE TO BE MADE PREPARATION FOR SESSION [BY TELEGRAM —OWN CORRESPONDENT] "WELLINGTON, Tuesday "Nino or ten nominees of the Labour Government will be appointed to the Legislative Council, and the appointments will bo made in time to enable the now members to attend the opening of Parliament toward the end of next month," said tho Primo Minister, the Hon. M. J. Savage, to-day. "It is impossible at tho moment to give any indication of the names of the prospective nominees," continued Mr. Savage. "Applications for appointment to the Legislative Council run into hundreds, and these have come from all parties. We have not started yet to sort them out, but it will be necessary to deal with the applications soon." Farther than that Mr. Savage would not go. Ho merely smiled when a number of names was submitted to him. Was it likely, as rumoured, ho was asked, that the Hon. W. Downie Stewart, a former Minister of the Crown and writer on socialism, would be appointed to the Legislative Council, so that his outstanding political intellect and shrewd economic knowledge might still be of service to New Zealand, or the Hon. Sir Charles Statham. former Speaker of the House of Representatives, or the Rev. J. K. Archer, of Christchurch, and many others. Meanwhile, the numerical strength of the Legislative Council is extremely low. There are only 26 members, although it would not be considered odd or unwieldy if the total were half of the aggregate of the House of Representatives, which numbers 80. It is well known, however, that the Labour Government is not really embarrassed about the possible attitude of the Upper House toward another place. If there should be anything in tho nature of a revolt against Labour, there is an Act in the Statute Book providing with a stroke of the pen for an elective Council. Moreover, the Government, with an overwhelming majority in the House of Representatives, could, if it desired, make an end to the chamber of elder statesmen. Nothing of the sort is contemplated, of course, and within a fortnight or so the Council's number will bo increased by ten members, whose radical politics, it may be presumed, will leaven the lump.